You're not needed in Haiti, your money is

Many from Valley volunteer to go to devastated island nation, but cash in the key

January 19, 2010|By Matt Assad | OF THE MORNING CALL

Maybe it's the horrific images of devastation, or the fact the Lehigh Valley has so many ties to those in need, but hundreds of people have been flocking to the American Red Cross, their churches and civic organizations in the hope of rushing to Haiti to help.

Yet even as the outpouring of volunteerism swells across the Valley, disaster relief experts have a message for those so willing to interrupt their lives for the people of Haiti: They need your prayers, your money and your support, but they do not need your presence.

''I'm amazed at the way people have come here just willing to drop everything to help in Haiti, but honestly, that's not what they need right now,'' said Janice Osborne, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of the Greater Lehigh Valley. ''We're not allowing anyone to go to Haiti right now. We'd only be in the way. It's just too dangerous.''

Osborne said more than 40 people have shown up at Red Cross headquarters in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, ready to pack a bag for Haiti, and it's happening at religious and civic organizations across the Valley.

Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley posted its plea for support Friday night. By Sunday morning, more than 50 people had offered to travel to Haiti to help build new homes.

That will be needed months, maybe even years, from now, but not immediately, said Lehigh Valley Habitat's chief executive officer, Christopher Bennick.

He said it's an outpouring of volunteerism not seen during the last international disaster, the tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in Indonesia in 2004.

''The tsunami was devastating as well, but most people in the Lehigh Valley don't even know where Sri Lanka is,'' Bennick said. ''For them, Haiti is real because it's close and everyone seems to have some tie to someone there.''

An orphanage run by Lifechurch of Allentown was damaged in the earthquake, and Bethlehem's New Covenant Christian Community has had a presence in clinics and churches in Haiti for two decades.

Lifechurch has sent 20 church members with medical and construction skills to help relocate the orphanage outside the epicenter. But it has turned away more than 100 others who offered to go.

''We are sending people with very specific skills, but we've been overwhelmed by others who have offered,'' said David Jones, Lifechurch's executive pastor. ''Money is the key, because what was an orphanage with 11 children before the earthquake is probably going to be one with 40 children once we relocate.''

And while the Valley's Haitian population is very small, the island nation's location 700 miles south of Florida has made it a popular site for Valley missionaries.

That's where Dr. Clarence Freed of Allentown was when the quake hit. He'd been there a week, working in a clinic about 90 miles outside Port-au-Prince. As a medical doctor, he rushed to a clinic just outside the disaster zone, but soon realized why it is no time for untrained volunteers to rush to Haiti.

He described a success story in which he was able to help an 8-year-old boy who was brought in with his exposed fractures splinted by cardboard boxes.

''The rest of the clinic stories you really don't want to know. We are exhausted,'' he wrote to his Facebook friends Sunday. ''[The] clinic lasted only 4 hours because we ran out of all supplies. Then we had 45 small sacks of food, rice, beans. Can of meat oil. This for about 600 people.''

Osborne said the international Red Cross has about 400 people in Haiti, all of them highly trained for relief missions.

For now, she's hoping that all of those people who were so willing to be generous with their time and effort will channel that generosity into giving money. Money is needed to get supplies into Haiti so doctors like Freed, and rescuers like those from Lifechurch, can help.

And eventually it will be needed so organizations like Habitat for Humanity can build a better, more quake-resistant Haiti, Bennick said.

''Writing a check may not feel quite as good as carrying water to those in need,'' Osborne said. ''But that's what is needed most. Money is the key.''